


K-Sci Christmas Tree

by utcrypticiores



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, pacrim holiday swap, some people just aren't into radioactive christmas trees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:46:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5512748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/utcrypticiores/pseuds/utcrypticiores
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Breach has been closed for almost a year now, and the holidays are coming up at the Shatterdome. Most of the old crew has moved on with their lives, but Newt is determined to give those left in the Shatterdome a great Christmas. And that starts with getting a six foot Douglas fir into the Kaiju Science lab.</p>
            </blockquote>





	K-Sci Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shmrie.tumblr.com](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Shmrie.tumblr.com).



> My contribution to the Pacrim Holiday Swap! My prompts were platonic Newt & Hermann, the Drift, and Cherno Alpha, so hopefully this provides. Shmrie, enjoy the story. Happy holidays!

“Goddammit Hermann, the least you could do is let me put up a tree. Humor me just this once, dude.” Newt adjusted his grip on the rapidly-shedding douglas fir, hefting it into the room and focusing all his efforts into not dragging it through the faintly glowing kaiju remains on his side of the lab. A few of the remaining jaeger tech engineers had offered to help him bring it up, but he’d shrugged them off. If he’d found a way to maneuver his entire grand piano into the lab, then he was sure he could handle a simple tree. This was a matter of pride. 

His lab mate was considerably less thrilled, eying Newt over his shoulder with an exasperated look from his position on the ladder next to his chalkboard. Stiffly, he climbed down and stomped over to the doorway, holding out his cane to block Newt from getting any further. “Not this time, Newton. I have no idea where you even found a six foot Douglas fir in the middle of Hong Kong, but it’s certainly not coming to rest here.”

Newt scowled and straightened up to his full height, his lab partner glaring down at him in something between disdain and concern. Newt had literally been in the guy’s head and he still had trouble figuring out what he was thinking. The Drift was a strange thing: After spending some quality time in someone's psyche you couldn’t really look at them the same way again. Hermann had stopped his flow of requests for a new lab mate, but he still found every excuse to make it clear he wasn’t interested in being friends. 

They did, however, know most of each other’s life histories, and that, in Newt’s eyes, made them at least certifiable bros. Hermann would disagree. But he was Hermann after all. No amount of kaiju hivemind would change that much. Newt freed a hand to brush some of the pine needles away from his face. “It’s Christmas, Hermann. Don’t you have a heart?” Hermann rolled his eyes and gestured with his head toward Newt’s Kaiju of the month calendar. 

“Christmas is five days away, no sense in celebrating too early.” His voice was, as ever, tired and British. Newt was well aware that they’d both been born and raised in Germany (an interesting coincidence), and occasionally made jabs at Hermann for trying so hard to be English. Then again, Hermann could say the same about Newt, who was just about as Americanized as a guy could get. 

“You really don’t have a heart! Well, then your Christmas gift to me can be letting me set this up in the lab.” Newt aimed to push past him, but Hermann blocked him again. He looked like an overworked parent. Sure, they’d saved mankind together and everything, but Newt could swear there were times Hermann was ready to toss him out a window. “C’mon, it’s been a rough year, let’s at least celebrate Christmas.” As another post-Drift effect, they both suffered from occasional violent flashbacks from the kaiju hivemind, along with now common nosebleeds and nightmares, unfortunately. So, with all that baggage, all the more reason for a great Christmas, right? (Plus Newt, AKA the sole biologist at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, had been hooking Hermann up with free medicine and pain killers for half a year now. Not that Newt minded, but still.) 

Hermann almost smiled, but ended up shaking his head. “I have nothing against happiness. What I don’t want is that behemoth in our lab.”

Time had passed, the situation had changed. The Breach had been closed for almost a year now, and the victory tour had been done. Newt still had all the world’s remaining kaiju specimens to study, with new shipments coming in all the time. He had years worth of research ahead of him, classifying and looking into kaiju biology in a way he hadn’t had the time to before. They were unlike anything humans had ever encountered, with a completely unfamiliar biology. Their cells used liquid ammonia as a solvent instead of water, and had all sorts of evolutions that Newt was dying to look into. 

Hermann, too, had years of work ahead of him, calculating the parameters of the Breach and rechecking equations to make sure there was no chance of it reopening. They’d both been living in the Hong Kong Shatterdome for so many years, they weren’t sure what to do with themselves if they left. Newt sometimes played around with the idea of heading back to Berlin, or Massachusettes. He could teach at any institute in the world now, if he wanted, and Hermann had the same sort of choices, but they were both perfectly content staying in the K-Sci lab. Most of the old crew had switched out, Raleigh and Mako heading off to Japan to start a life together, and Chuck getting promoted and shipped off somewhere brighter. Few people other than Newt and Hermann seemed interested in sticking around as part of the graveyard crew, there until the end. They’d never discussed it, but Newt was happy with his. Drafty military base or not, this was the place where so much of their lives had happened. 

Urgh. Newt rubbed his eyes under his glasses and let out a long sigh, realizing that Hermann was still waiting.

Hermann still held his ground, and Newt finally sniffed and backed out the door. “Alright, then, mister Grinch. I’ll set this beauty up in my own quarters, your loss. But don’t think this is ov--ach!” Newt was interrupted with a sneeze, rubbing his rose. Without breaking his glare with Hermann, he backed down the hall toward his room, six foot tree and all. Still sniffling, he dumped the rapidly shedding tree in his room and stuck his hands in his jean pockets, figuring he’d go and look for Tendo to vent at. 

Everyone in the Shatterdome had expected Tendo Choi to leap on the first plane out of Hong Kong the moment the Breach was closed, to go back to his wife, who was probably sitting alone at home in America, waiting for him. Right? Wrong. See, just as surprised as everyone was that Tendo found a wife in the first place, no one had expected Alison Choi. She’d packed up her things and moved to Hong Kong herself. She was a gifted engineer who’d been trying to get near a jaeger for years, and with a personality large enough to match Tendo’s. They were as in love with Hong Kong as they were with each other, and Newt had a feeling that like him and Hermann, they’d stick around just as long as the PPDC kept the lights on. (Wait, didn’t Hermann have a wife too? He’d never mentioned her. Newt was sure he’d seen that on a paper somewhere. He’d have to remember to bug him about her sometime). 

When Newt finally tracked down Tendo, he was with Alison in the Jaeger bay next to Cherno Alpha, eating a late lunch and dangling his feet off of something that was probably horrendously dangerous. Alison was busy with jaeger maintenance nearby, nodding and laughing as he spoke. “...and so I said, look, flyboy, I don’t care how holy these chickens are, or how beautiful the shrine is, the Kaiju ain’t coming back and prayin’ to them won’t help a thing. You’re better off keeping those birds to yourself. And he looked at me, Alison, and he just--” 

“Newt! Hey, how'd the tree go? Hermann take it alright?” Alison turned to greet Newt and cut off her husband mid sentence, setting down her wrench and rubbing some engine grease off on a rag in her blue coveralls. Tendo twisted around to face him and raised his hand in a casual half salute, miffed at his interruption. Newt dropped down next to Tendo on the platform and let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. 

“Hermann’s being an Ebenezer again. I swear, he could pull the whole ‘the world is literally ending’ shtick the last few years, but now, seriously? The apocalypse is cancelled and he still won’t even let me bring in a damn Christmas tree.” Allison leaned over Tendo’s shoulder. “Maybe he had a bad experience with Christmas when he was a kid.” She reached down and snatched a few fries from Tendo’s plate as she spoke.

“Maybe he’s Jewish. Or Atheist. Or tree-phobic. Speaking of, where did you get that tree?” Tendo handed the plate up to Alison and she took it happily. They were almost never apart anymore, it seemed. Tendo couldn’t have less of an interest in piloting, but it was easy to tell that the two were drift compatible. Newt turned his gaze to the wide expanse of the Jaeger bay. He always ended up forgetting how gigantic the jaegers were. 

“I have money. I found that tree in a respectable location.” Alison raised her eyebrows and Tendo rolled his eyes.

“Don’t tell me you got that thing from one of the bone slums, Newt.” There was a pause, in which Newt went quiet and Tendo started choking on whatever it was he was eating. “W-wait, shit, seriously? Does the thing glow? How many heads does it have?” Alison frowned and muttered, ‘offensive’, and Newt started to stand up. 

“Okay, so not from the slum, exactly, but there are certain people with certain connections from that area, who found access to a douglas fir. Okay? It’s not radioactive. I think.”

Tendo was about to say something else, but stopped himself. He’d seen weirder things in his time at the PPDC. “Well, radioactive or not, it’s a shame he won’t let it into the lab. He’s Hermann, though, what do you expect?”

Newt shrugged on his jacket. “He’s not bad guy, just stubborn. But believe me when I say, he’s going to get in the Christmas spirit if I have to pick him up and throw him in it.”

Newt left the Chois and went back to his room. He had a plan to make. 

…

It was Christmas Eve eve, three days since the incident with the tree, and Newt would be damned if he hadn’t tried every possible way to get Hermann into the Christmas spirit. Even the rest of the PPDC had gotten into the holiday cheer, hanging bells on the backs of doors and decorating the mess hall in tinsel. Tendo had been playing Christmas carols over the intercom (strictly oldies, he was still Tendo, after all), and someone had even tied a bow around Max’s neck. Yes, it was childish, but after years of intense stress, now of all times should be for fun. 

 

Newt was suddenly awakened by the sound of a cane snapping the desk next to his head. The images from the hivemind faded, leaving Newt’s heart racing, and his mind took a moment to readjust. “Woah. Dude. Uncalled for.” Newt slurred, rubbing his eyes and grasping for his glasses among the workpapers, tattoo sketches, and kaiju figurines littering his desk. He must have fallen asleep at his desk. Hermann seemed to be tolerating Newt’s holiday decorations, but he certainly hadn’t been contributing. Moments like nearly snapping his cane over his head while napping, for example, brought Newt to wonder just how much it had been bothering him. 

“Get up. Sleep in your own quarters, not over your desk. You’ll get drool in everything, or burn your face on some stray pool of kaiju excretion.”

“Ah, why would you care if I burnt my face off with kaiju blue. And you know I sterilize the specimens before I bring them in here, right? Like, there’s no chance of dying from any of my loose specimens. Well, if there is one, it’s like, really, really low, and,--” 

“Newt, I get it, chill.”

Newt couldn’t help but crack a grin at that. ‘Chill’. That was new. Maybe a shared kaiju hivemind counted for something after all. 

“I’m finally rubbing off on you Hermann. You could learn a thing or two from me.”

“Hardly.”

Newt listened to his cane thumping on the floor and sighed louder, grabbing a half finished solo cup from his workspace. Before he could finish taking a sip Hermann snatched it out of his hand “For heaven’s sake, don’t resort to alcohol at this time of day. You obviously were having a nightmare, so speak up about it.”

Newt let his head thunk back down on the table. “First of all, that was diet coke, which is always acceptable, and secondly, screw you. I don’t need to talk out my problems with Christmas hating scrooges.”

Hermann pulled up a chair and thumped down a pile of paper and scissors. “For everything you tell me, I’ll cut one of your snowflakes. Enough for you?”

Newt sat up so fast he hit his head on one of the inflatable kaiju that bobbed too low on the ceiling. “Let me bring the tree in the lab and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Hermann laughed, really, truly laughed, and Newt leapt up from his chair, scrambling down the hall to get the tree. 

Two hours and half a tree of shed branches later, the tree was balanced exactly on the tape line between the two halves of the room, held up by tape, string, and hope. 

Newt looked around proudly at the room, covered for the most part now in paper snowflakes. 

Hermann poured himself another drink and looked around the room too, smiling. Newt had turned on the Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas album, and the room didn’t seem nearly as cold as it usually did. “None of that was true, was it?” Hermann asked, and Newt squinted. 

“Absolute lies. It was just another Drift nightmare. But I’m a good storyteller right?”

“The part about the elves was the least convincing, I have to say.”

“Hey, elves are real. There was this one time, back in Berlin, I was eight, right, and…”  
They stayed up late, enjoying what wasn’t quite Christmas but didn’t have to be, and Newt was mostly sure Hermann didn’t want to throw him out the window.


End file.
